By life tormented, and by cunning hope, <br />When my soul surrenders in its battle with them, <br />Day and night I press my eyelids closed <br />And sometimes I'm vouchsafed peculiar visions. <br /> <br />The gloom of quotidian existence deepens, <br />As after a bright flash of autumn lightning, <br />And only in the sky, like a call from the heart, <br />The stars' golden eyelashes sparkle. <br /> <br />And the flames of infinity are so transparent, <br />And the entire abyss of ether is so close, <br />That I gaze direct from time into eternity <br />And recognize your flame, universal sun. <br /> <br />Motionless, encircled by fiery roses, <br />The living altar of the cosmos smolders <br />And in its smoke, as in creative slumber, <br />All forces quiver, eternity's a dream. <br /> <br />And all that rushes through the abyss of ether, <br />And every ray, embodied or ethereal,- <br />Is but your reflection, O universal sun, <br />It is but a dream, but a fleeting dream. <br /> <br />Through the worldly breath of these reveries <br />I fly like smoke, involuntarily disperse, <br />And in this vision, in this delirium, <br />I can live with ease and breathe without pain. <br /> <br />In the darkness and still of a mysterious night <br />I see a fond and welcoming spark, <br />From the chorus of spheres, familiar eyes <br />Shine upon a grave forgotten in the steppe. <br /> <br />The grass has faded, the desert is grim, <br />A lonely tomb dreams an orphan's dream, <br />And only in the sky, like an eternal idea, <br />The stars' golden eyelashes sparkle. <br /> <br />And I dream you've risen from the dead, <br />Unchanged since you departed the earth, <br />And I dream a dream: we both are young, <br />And you've looked at me as you did back then.<br /><br />Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/by-life-tormented/
